Little Less Red
by Dreaming of Starry Skies
Summary: Lila may have been a liar and a grade A bully, but maybe she had a point.


"If Ladybug has the so called power of creation, why can't she create herself a better outfit?"

The voice of Lila rang out throughout the classroom and whilst Marinette had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, or bang her head against her desk, she had to admit that, for what must have been the first time in Lila's life, she had a valid point.

Compared to Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, Carapace or even Chat her Ladybug outfit was admittedly basic. It didn't normally bother her: as Ladybug her biggest objective was to fight crime, not look good, but even so it would be nice, especially from a designer's perspective if her costume was a little less bland.

Or maybe just a little less head to toe bright red.

Then Adrien turned to her and gave her a small smile and all the thoughts of bland costumes went out of her head as she attempted to stop herself turning red out of costume.

The day was thankfully uneventful and the people of Paris managed to avoid offending each other so there was no Akuma, but as Marinette sat on her bed later that night, pencil in hand,looking at a page, blank from artist block, and frowning, she suddenly remembered Lila's earlier words.

"Tikki?" She asked the Kwami who was sitting on her desk and nibbling on a biscuit, "Can I ask you something?"

"Any time Marinette," the Kwami floated over to her.

"I don't mean to be rude," she began, "But why is Ladybug's costume so much" she struggled for the right words, "less ornate than the others?"

To her relief, Tikki didn't seem to take any offense to her words, instead lightly laughing. "That was your choice Marinette. When you first became Ladybug, maybe you didn't want anything other than the absolute minimum, and that's what the Miraculous provided."

"Oh," Marinette bit her lip. "If I wanted to, would I be able to change it now."

Tikki thought for a second, "People in the role of Ladybug almost always stay the same until their role ends, but I remember one peacock, who changed his costume almost every time he transformed. I think it was revealed that he was a tailor's apprentice. So if you want to update your outfit, you can. Next time you transform, just concentrate what you want to look like." She almost went back to nibbling her cookie but then stopped as if remembering something. "Not that you would go crazy Marinette, but it has to stay in reason and don't try and picture anything that would hinder you in battle.

Marinette nodded and went back to her sketchbook. She would find the perfect design.

An hour later, and she groaned, staring at the mound of scrunched up paper. Somehow, in the short space of time it had already reached knee length depth. She flopped back into her pillow and let out another groan. Tikki looked at her sympathetically but Marinette didn't notice. "I know it's not important, but Lila's words are really getting to me. What if everyone agrees. Sure they love Ladybug for saving them, but what if they think her costume is boring too?" Marinette wasn't sure why she was letting Lila's opinion affect her so much.

"Marinette, no one thinks any part of Ladybug is boring. They're too busy being saved by her to care if her costume isn't as pretty as the others." Then Tikki's expression switched to what Marinette recognised as her cheeky one. "And at least you don't have a bell."

Marinette smiled, thinking of all times she had rang it and how Chat looked so affronted every time. Part of her was still distracted though. "Should I change my hair do you think? Alya's always goes into a ponytail when she transforms."

Tikki rolled her eyes but smiled.

Over the next few days, Paris was Akuma free and Marinette used any alone time she had either doing her homework or working on a design. It was a slow process as she wanted something perfect for Ladybug yet still functional but she was taking things she liked from each design and putting them together and slowly designing what she wanted to look like.

"What do you think?"

Marinette had been secretive about her design, even to Tikki but now it was ready, she tentatively turned her sketchbook so that Tikki could see it. Almost immediately, the Kwami gave Marinette a smile so big it almost covered her entire face. "It's perfect Marinette. Just make sure you're picturing it intensely when transforming. If you don't you'll probably just keep your default outfit. And don't let it distract you when you need to fight."

"I won't Tikki." Marinette smiled. "I promise!"

Adrien had been modelling in the park when the screams were heard. Everyone around him seemed to instantly know what they meant and ran for cover, but his photographer stayed oblivious and continued attempting to snap photos. He saw Gorilla approaching and quickly grabbed his bag and ran in the opposite direction, dodging behind a bush. Luckily his bodyguard passed him without checking the bush and the blonde breathed a short sigh of relief.

He opened his bag to find Plagg snoring and the piece of cheese he had left in case of an emergency, gone.

"Wake up Plagg," he shook the black cat lightly and it groaned.

"Let me guess, another Akuma. Why can't everyone just get along and eat cheese?" The cat groaned in annoyance but got up. Adrien stuck his fist out. "Plagg, claws out!" He yelled and he felt the miraculous power wash over him until Chat Noir stood in the place of Adrien.

He peeked out from behind the bush to locate the direction of the Akuma. People seemed to be running towards him, yet they were getting.. smaller?

Chat Noir watched in slight horror as the people slowly transformed into regular looking mice. It wasn't the worst thing an Someone had done whilst akumatized , but from the expressions on the once-people's faces it looked painful and he took a deep breath before going to find the akumatized victim, hoping Ladybug would already be there. He might be wearing a Catsuit but he had no desire to get any closer to the mice.

When he got closer to the action, Ladybug was there, but he took a double take. She looked different. It was still his lady, he recognised the blue of her hair and the fluidity of her movements, but her costume was different. Chat didn't even know they could change. Maybe it was a creation thing. He couldn't see it closely enough to make out the details, but it was less red.

Chat watched her for a minute, working out what she was trying to avoid. It was a stick with what looked like a mouse head on it. For a second he almost wanted to laugh, but then he watched the stick grow to impossible lengths, like his baton. The victim was dressed in a grey and black jumpsuit with a mask stretching behind her face to create ears. Around her body there was a pink ribbon She was shorter than most, but not childlike in her movement or actions. Around her the mice seemed to be obeying to her will.

Whilst he was observing, he noticed the stick almost brush Ladybug's hip. With a speed he only possessed as a superhero he jumped in, narrowly avoiding the stick hitting himself.

"As mice as this is," Chat began watching to see her mouth twitch up in an exasperated smile. "Any ideas on how to defeat her?"

"Not yet," Ladybug replied, "I can't work out how to get close without getting hit by her stick, and her mouse minions are making it hard to even defend myself."

"Well don't worry m'lady, as a cat, this is the purrfect fight for me." Up close, he could see her costume better. Her mask covered more of her face than it usually did and two wisps of her hair seemed to be sticking up like antennas. The red seemed less bright than usual and it made her blue eyes pop. Chat swallowed, momentarily distracted.

"Look out!" Mirroring his previous action, Ladybug pushed Chat away and the stick, which looked to be about 10 metres long, missed his hand by a wide margin.

"The longer it gets, the less control she has!" Ladybug said. "Chat, distract her." He obliged, getting as close as he dared to and in the background he heard her summoning her lucky charm. He didn't turn around until he heard her hollering at him to run in the opposite direction. He obliged and after less than a minute he heard her purifying the Akuma.

"Pound it," they said in unison, fist bumping each other, before turning to the Akuma victim, a girl about 12 years old with a pointed face and slightly protruding teeth. There were tear tracks on her face and she was looking in anger at the item, a normal looking metre stick.

They waited for her and the people around who had been transported into mice to be seated in the backs of ambulances and to be calling friends and family before they began to talk.

"Your costume," he said, "It's different."

"Well noted," she smiled, obviously pleased he had taken the time to say something.

For the first time, he was able to take a good look. The red was slightly dimmer and there was more black, with the chest and upper arms and the legs below the knee being completely dark. From her elbows, there were no spots, just red and her hands were black. Her mask was the same, except it covered part of her nose, similar to his mask. Her hair ribbons were longer and the ends of her pigtails went from blue to red. She still looked like Ladybug but there was something more elegant about her newer costume that he couldn't explain.

"It looks, nice," he grinned, "You could even say it.. suits you." He winked at her and she laughed before hearing her earring bleep.

She waved her hand at him and he waved back, before going to find some place to transform back.

"So Plagg," he began once he was Adrien yet again, "Can I change the way I look as Chat Noir?"

* * *

 **Hey, I hope, y'all enjoyed. This was pretty much only made so I could do some Ladybug outfit designs. So if it's terrible I'm sorry. The only timd I really watch the show nowadays is when the new episode comes out.**

 **So like once every two months.**

 **Fücking hate Lila tho.  
Like I really hate her.  
Bitch. **

**If you liked this drop a like and subscribe;)**

 **Wait... I'm not on YouTube..**

 **Am I...**

 **Maybe each website is just a social construct..**

 **What am I saying? Like seriously, I have no idea anymore.**

 **H  
E  
L  
P  
Me  
I'm hopefully gonna have the design up for Marinette later today in my Instagram/tumblr. My Instagram is Paging_Harley_quinn and my tumblr is twinkletwinklelittledream if you want to follow either of those. I know what I want it to look like and I've tried to draw it but I haven't got it quite right (it's terrible) yet.  
My work is unedited/checked through because I'm lazy so sorry if there are any errors in spelling or punctuation.**


End file.
